[11534] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
CIX and Community Networking
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chris Miller)
Wed Apr 6 07:52:54 1994
Date: Wed, 06 Apr 94 03:30:59 edt
From: cfmski@mainestreet.tiac.net (Chris Miller)
To: com-priv@psi.com
> jlw@cs.columbia.edu wrote:
> Imagine, if you will, a small BBS. They don't really *care* about
> becoming a big BBS. They have other jobs, this thing is run out of
> their living room, etc.... <much deleted> They
> don't *have* to buy anything new. It's all there. But they get
> told they should pay CIX $10K because they're reselling IP connections.
>
> These people don't exist. I made them up. But I can imagine something
> like this happening in lots of places, with various shades of difference.
THESE PEOPLE DO EXIST AND IT IS A REAL QUESTION.
As IP in a box starts to get around this is exactly what will crop up
everywhere. It is in fact part of one of the models we are considering
as part of the Maine "Freenet" effort aimed at rural datafication.
So just where _does_ the line get drawn when you've got 50 or more different
BBS's each servicing a local dialing area and offering POPmail and
other IP based services? $10k may or may not be a barrier depending
on where one draws that line. What happens when the town hall and the
community newspaper buy modems and a $100 IP suite so they can have POPmail
and their own gopher sites? Who's reselling to who? The guy at the border
with the router? Or is everyone reselling to everyone? Or do we all agree
not to sell, only to pay "registration" fees?
Do we call the whole state one network and pay a single fee? Or does each
BBS (some with maybe only a couple of dozen _local_ subscribers) get hit?
Seems to me the $10k fits the "good-enough for gov't work" rule and I hope
CIX staff is just waiting to hear better ideas. I don't like the idea that
a 100 user co-op in Bridgton Maine should pay as much as AOL or Compuserve.
(Actually, AOL should pay double for all that bounced mail.... ;>)
> What could happen with, say, $200,000 in additional annual
>income for the CIX? I can think of a couple of things right off the bat:
>1) New points of service. We could have a CIX-West, CIX-East,
> CIX-Midwest and CIX-South. All connected with T1 lines. NOW the
If we pay the $10k can we get CIX- Rural Maine too? Now that _might_
be a deal.... <G>
bye
Chris Miller MaineStreet
208 Portland Road, Gray, ME 04039 199.0.65.208
207 657 4963 voice headwall@max.tiac.net 207 657 5078 SLIP
